


clarion bright, agleam with light

by wyrdann104



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dragon Zuko (Avatar), Gen, Zuko gets a backstory like Yue, burn descriptions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 14:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20293042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyrdann104/pseuds/wyrdann104
Summary: Zuko is a dragon. This isn't exactly a blessing.





	clarion bright, agleam with light

Zuko is born human.

He is born human, but he is born at midnight, at the accursed hour, when Agni’s face is turned furthest from his people. He is born pale and still and does not cry. The midwives all agree: the child will not live through the night.

As soon as Ozai hears the news he refuses to see the child and storms away. Ursa holds her near-stillborn babe to her breast. He does not stir. His only signs of life are the weak flutter of his heartbeat and his tiny puffs of air against her skin.

Ursa is no firebender, but at this moment she feels herself burning inside.

The midwives declare that nothing but a miracle will save him. So Ursa raises her voice from the polite court murmur for the first time in years, and drives the useless women out. If they cannot help then they will only be a hindrance.

The birthing room feels empty and cavernous, and her son’s struggling, weak and wheezing breaths nearly echo.

Ursa has no idea what to do.

She has never been a religious woman, but in this moment, Ursa prays with her entire being for her son’s life. She doesn’t know how long she sits there, head bowed, haunched over her baby like a wounded otter-bear, whispering prayers and pleas to any spirit she thinks might listen.

At some point there comes, surpassing all her desperate hopes, an answer.

_“I hear your prayers, Ursa, daughter of Koharu and Akihito.”_

There is a heat haze in front of her, twisting and doubling up on itself. The air feels like midsummer noon, cocooning her in warmth. In the haze is a dragon, a sun, a phoenix, shimmering from one shape to another. Ursa knows who it is that is standing before her, here in this dim room, and only just dares to think his name.

Agni.

_Why? How?_ The questions rise up but Ursa brushes them away as inconsequential.

She feels something like awe, but her determination and desperation are stronger, and they make her bold, “Will you save my son?”

_“I can do so. But there will be a price,”_ he warns in a whisper like a fire crackling through a cedar-pine forest.

“Anything. Everything.” Ursa is a mother now, and at this moment, the barely breathing bundle in her arms is the most important thing in the world.

_“Your son will be courageous, and honorable, and true. He will have a soul of fire, and the heart of a dragon,”_ the sun promises her.

_“This is the blessing, and with it, the price: he will not give up, no matter the cost, and it will always cost. He will embody honor, and so he will not understand when others do not. He will be true, and so lies will fail him. He will be a child of Fire in all ways, body and soul and heart._

_“This is the price, brave Ursa, daughter of Koharu and Akihito, daughter of Agni, that your son must pay.”_

“I understand.” She agrees. How can she do otherwise?

_“You do not fully understand,”_ he corrects, _“But you will.”_

Agni reaches out a hand with a small, pure flame dancing on on clawed fingers, and holds it to Zuko’s lips. Ursa wants to jerk him away. 

She doesn’t. 

The flame doesn’t seem to do anything she realizes with relief, doesn’t blister his tiny lips or burn her soft skin red. He holds it there, until Zuko finally takes in a tiny, shuddering, struggling breath. He breathes again, stronger, deeper, clearer. A third time has him inhaling the last of it, and there is relief pounding in Ursa’s ears like a heartbeat after running for one’s life.

At some point, Agni’s manifestation fades away. Ursa hardly bothers to notice.

Finally, dawn breaks, and at that moment Zuko opens his eyes. They shine the pale gold of the sunbeams creeping across her floor. His little face scrunches up and he opens his mouth and wails with a healthy pair of lungs. His reddened face is the most beautiful thing Ursa has ever seen.

She has never been a religious woman, but at this moment, she promises to herself that she will bring offerings to Agni’s shrine daily.

At the sound of Zuko’s cries the midwives stream in and proclaim it a miracle. She doesn’t bother to agree with them aloud, but yes. A miracle was performed in this room last night.

This is the price:

A year later, Ursa is bent over Zuko’s crib, dangling her fingers for him to grasp and murmuring baby-talk to him that would make her the mockery of the Court were she to ever let a word of it slip in public.

Zuko is laughing and making happy baby sounds when all of a sudden he stretches, his form _blurs_ at the edges, and there is suddenly a three-foot dragonling in the prince’s crib.

And in that moment, Ursa can only half-hysterically think that _this is a bit more than just the heart of a dragon!_

**Author's Note:**

> I just found a list of Japanese baby names and chose two for Ursa's parents.
> 
> I hope to continue this at some point, bc I have Really Painful Thoughts(TM) about Zuko and Iroh's relationship in this au. Because Zuko knows that his Uncle slew the last known dragon. However, I write really slow and I wanted to get this part of idea out there.


End file.
